How Long Can A Cooler Keep BBQ Hot? | Is A Cooler The Best Cambro for Barbecue?

Pre-heat the cooler with hot water before putting the meat in. In this day and age I must remind everybody to drain the water & dry out the cooler before adding the hot meat.

I think holding in a cooler for 12 hours is a great way to over cook a brisket. Instead when your done cooking it let it rest at room temp until 150 and hold in an electric 22 qt roaster oven for up to 17 hours at 150. It’ll be cheaper than a yeti and won’t over cook the brisket.

I bought as mall convection oven that was cheaper than the yeti and will hold it much longer.

Or just buy a sous vide setup for a fraction of Yeti price and hold it for days for home use

this is for compulsive shoppers not for normal people

Has anybody ever use an electric roaster oven to rest meat?

I always make my brisket the day before. I would put it in cooler for 10 hours then put in the fridge. Then when ready to eat heat in oven 275.

Cool commercial

Why would you compare a smaller, thinner cooler made for keeping drinks cold at parties to a big, well insulated, way more expensive cooler made for keeping things cold for many hours?

I have a brisket resting in a temporary styrofoam cooler. I ordered some meat and it came in one with a few ice packs as the store was 8 hours away. The last time I pulled a brisket at 205, wrapped it in plastic over the butcher paper, threw a towel on it and put it in the styrofoam cooler, it was still 158 internal 5.5 hours later. I could maybe insulate more with more towels or have more meat in there to extend the tme.

Great video! I've been resting meat in a couple Cambro boxes I bought at an auction for years, but recently was tasked with cooking "Santa Maria" style medium rare tri tip for 500 people. I did a graduation party last year for 275 and cooked 65 tri tips to 120 degrees internal temperature and then rested in heavy aluminum foil and tossed in the cambros for about 2 hours. Then I cooked 250 chicken thighs on the coals using metal racks we built for our Santa Maria grill. I like to serve the chicken right off the grill while the skin still has some crisp texture, resting chicken in the Cambros or coolers always seems to compromise the crispiness of the chicken skin, which is something people always compliment me on. At the end of 2 hours the meat rose to 130 degrees and the meat turned out beautiful and super hot still. I sliced the tri tip on my Hobart 12" slicer into hotel pans and everyone raved about it. I was wondering if I could get 4 hours of hold on the tri tip and not overcook it or let it get cold in those same boxes or in Yeti's. I think after watching this video I'll be plenty safe.

What if you steam up a bunch of hot towels. Pull one out of the steam and imediately wrap the brisket with it. Put the brisket in the cooler, then stuff the cooler with the rest of the hot towels right before you close it. I bet you can keep that brisket at a steady 150 degrees for at least 18 hours in that yeti.

That’s internal temperature. So if the middle is at 140 the outside is already passed the danger zone for some time.

Initial thought to really extend your hold time is you could stick a large coffee can, stock pot, or some other container down in the cooler and mostly fill it with boiling water. Your cloth or towel would get condensate on it but I'm now curious how much that would extend your hold time.

I wish you had mentioned the interior dimensions. I was thinking of buying a Yeti cooler for holding BBQ but was disappointed at the small interior space (and the high price!) of the Yeti coolers I saw in my local Ace Hardware store. Also you didn't get into practical cook timing. The Yeti may last 12 hours, but if you want to serve dinner at 7:00 PM and hold for 12 hours, you would have to finish your cook at 7:00 AM That would mean starting your cook around midnight (or later, depending on how long your protein takes to cook). I'm checking out the Coleman. Seems to me you wake up early, cook all day, and have a nice 2-4 hour rest.

I have done this …. It got me thinking about some of the Battery operated coolers on market now that cool and heat my be a good option to try in this experiment…. And it would work similar to the professional grade warmers …. Most of them can operate 12 hours or more 😉

Fun experiment. Other variables to consider are the amount of hot meat (😂) and size of the cooler relative to the amount of meat. Packing more meat into the space will allow the meat to stay hotter longer due to the increased thermal mass. The Yeti will still win, but it would be interesting to see how the Party Stacker does fully packed with meat.

I wonder whether putting mason jars filled with 165 degree water in the cooler wouldn’t extend the hold-time? Could even swap them out a few times over the course of 12 hours.

I've been holding my briskets and pork butts overnight in my home oven for over a year or so now.

It's my understanding that most modern ovens allow for a temperature adjustment of +/- 30 degrees to account for variations from one oven to the next within the same brand/model ranges. My personal oven will hold as low as 170 degrees displayed temperature. To hold, I just adjust my actual oven temp to be -30 of my displayed temperature, then turn the oven on for 170-175 degrees. I cook my brisket/butt the day before (say from 8am-10 or 11pm), then throw it (wrapped up) in the oven overnight. It comes out jiggly, moist, and amazing every time!

I'll use coolers for transportation the next day if I'm traveling to eat. I just pre-heat the cooler for 20-30 minutes with 150 degree water and add in hot bath towels for the drive.

Dude! This was phenomenal! Just went thru this a month ago with an overnight cook. GREAT WORK!!!

Yeti is Anti Second Amendment, and I will never give them a dime of my money!!!!

Super helpful information.

Thank you for doing the study/test!

I’ll hold onto this information for years to come 👍🏼

How many pork butts to serge 80 people?

I love the plots and the data. Appreciate the effort on that front. Although I’ll never give yeti my business since they came out as anti-gun. But I’ll buy an artic cooler. Half the cost and same performance

Could you also throw it in the oven at rhe lowest temperature?

Are towels safe for food handling? I mean will the health department allow that

Is it safe for the food ? After you pour boiling water in cooler ?

I get this was likely a promo /commercial for Yeti. A couple variations I'd like to see on the test is. 1) dont put boiling water int to coolers 1st. ( most of are never going to do that) 2nd stuff the coolers with towels. Also use a small like lunch box12 pack size cooler. I know most times I do a Shoulder thats what I use to hold one and stuff it with the towels as well. Granted I never monitored the temps like you did so I am curious. as i am betting most of us home BBQ guy and gals are using my method or similar.. Thanx for the info and the thought provoking content and educational your provide on your channel. :D

The rest of is just wrap some bricks in foil, heat them up, then line the cooler bottom with them. Cover with bath towels. You don’t need a $400 Yeti — just $4 worth of bricks

You can use moving blankets to help insulate the heat more. I have a blue coleman cooler and use 2 moving blankets and can hold food a long time. I should try this with my Rtic and see how it does!

My bison cooler works better than my Cambro . The cooler I put towels over the food the Cambro I put hot water in it and the cooler is better .

You need to wrap in several towels, filling the entire cooler leaving no gaps. Just my opinion but it’s like wearing several layers of clothing.

looks like they dont make the stacker anymore

I am a commercial smoker. We serve an average of a thousand meals per day. We use boiling water and towels at the bottom of our coolers to hold temp overnight . What no one tells you is about abundant temperatures. Beware in early spring or late fall your temperatures vary greatly

I just put my oven on "warm", set it to 150 degrees and leave it for 10 hours.

I have used some Omaha Steak coolers to hold for about 4 to 6 hours. When I pulled it out it was still hot.

Yeti cooler $400


Hot Box food warmer
16x16x24 $324

I made a pho-Cambro by taking an older Coleman cooler and then lining the interior with 2" thick styrofoam. I wrap the meat in aluminum foil or in some cases ' paper ' for the last few hours of cooking.. Pull it when done and open it up for a few minutes. wrap it back up + wrap an old heavy beach towel around it & then into my pho-Cambro. Works great & hold for 6-8 hours without issue. A ton less $$$ than a Cambro or Yeti as well.

Why not just hold the meat in an electric oven at 140°F+?

Please do this test not with a cooler that’s 5 times too big with 2 feet of empty space inside. You need to fill up empty space, or get the proper size cooler before doing any kind of comparison what so ever!

If it’s summer time couldn’t you just put the cooler outside?

I set my oven at lowest temp 170 F, and placed my 6 foil wrapped pork butts in the oven for 10 hours. They turned out moist and delicious. No complaints.

This is awesome. I have another brand cooler (it's in the garage and I can't think of the brand name) that's insulated very comparable to a Yeti. I think I'll try this with my next brisket. Great video!

If you buy a yeti you need to get your priorities straight they are crazy expensive and a Coleman 7 day is just as good and hundreds of dollars cheaper you can buy you wife something nice and shut your ego down and become a man again.word !

I smoked 8 butts wrapped in a towel in a regular igloo cooler. Think they rested almost 8 hours before we ate. Ended up only needing 4 butts. The other 4 I left in cooler wrapped up overnight and they were still hot to touch in the morning. I did keep the cooler inside so that probably helped.

Thanks for the comparison! Interesting!

Excellent info!!

Has anyone used this concept with reheated bbq?

I held about 16 pork buts in my cooler for about 6 hours before service time. It did really well.

Thanks for this. In the video you didn't wrap the butt in a towel before putting in the Yeti? Did you after all and it was just missed in the video?